Moscow Urged to Take ‘unambiguous’ Stand on ‘galloping Anti-semitism’

The independent French left-wing daily, “Combat,” today urged the plenum of the central committee of the Communist party, now meeting in Moscow, to adopt an unambiguous attitude toward Soviet Jewry by halting Russia’s “galloping anti-Semitism.”

The daily said that the spread of anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union had even included recently a “worrisome” number of charges of ritual murders against Soviet Jews. The newspaper noted that many foreign personalities, known to be free of hostile attitudes toward the Soviet Union had repeatedly criticized Soviet Premier Khrushchev on the subject.

The “Combat” emphasized that while the Soviet Premier had tried to justify his record on the issue, it did not appear that the situation of the Soviet Jews had improved. The newspaper said that Jews continued to appear in disproportionate numbers among Soviet citizens condemned to death for economic crimes and the campaign against synagogues continued to grow. It stressed as “a particular serious development” the fact that Moscow recently charged synagogues with permitting worshippers to have “disloyal contacts with foreign diplomats.”